London Girls versus the Carrot Crunchers

Two eggs today from the girls - I am quite surprised to get them from KoKKo and Ginger, as they have been a bit upset about their living arrangements. Never mind, they'll get over it.

11.30am

My fingers are tingling as they come back to life from being almost frozen picking broccoli leaves for my ‘flock’. Soon they will start to burn, so I any typing errors you can put down to that.

Phew where do I start?

Last night when I put the London girls to bed – after gently peeling them off where they had roosted, snuggled up on the broom stick in the run, I was not sure whether to close the Eglu door or not.

A bit like when you have someone else’s children to stay – or in my case our grandchildren. Do they like the door open or closed, what time do they like to get up in the morning, do they have any special preferences for breakfast?

So I left the door ajar – I figured that if they thought roosting up under the plastic covered run, was fine by them, then in the Eglu with the door open was better.

So when I went out this morning they were already up, coiffured and dressed up to the nines, tucking daintily into layers mash with a few pellets for breakfast. I gave them fresh warm water, and offered them some pear cores with pips in which they dived on – very unladylike – which was a good sign, and Dilly–Dilly, who’s name I will shorten to just one Dilly to save on the typing was happy to eat from my hand. They will just have to grow accustomed to my different accent I guess. I was singing to her quietly as she pecked, ‘Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly, Lavender’s green……….

She didn’t mind in the slightest! Then Freckles the black and white bantam and Pumpkin the Buff one just tucked in giving me a cursory glance – but I know what they were thinking. You can see how pink my fingers are with the cold!

I went and got Ginger, Adelaide and KoKKo out of their open prison, and brought them into the pen, and you could almost feel their glee as they inspected everything to make sure it was just as they left it.

I hung their feeder up on this side of the run near the banties so they get used to eating together, and scattered corn mix along both sides of the run too so they all were pecking away at it.

There is a bit of ‘name ‘ calling between the two groups. The carrot crunchers on one side in their plain but practical outfit, and the IT girls on the other dressed in the latest fashion, and totally unsuitable for trudging around in mud – but nowadays you can have the best of both worlds – live in the country, but have the mod cons – as my girls do.

I went up the allotment and picked lovely purple broccoli leaves for them all – then remembered that I had better pick the dainty tasty little ones from off the top of the plants for the babes.

These were tied in their respective bunches on the run, inside and out, and they all pecked away.

Can you see Dilly Dilly the Lavender pekin looking all nonchalent. Just after I took this photo she rushed and pecked Ginger through the wire to stop her eating their greens!

Ginger went off to lay an egg for about 15 minutes whilst I decided to wait until she had finished so that I could collect it.

She sat there clucking all the while and eventually stood up and made the most amazing and noisiest almost crowing noise imaginable. She stretched herself as tall as she could and would not stop. I picked her up and gave her a cuddle and tried to shush her but still she shrieked. She hadn’t even laid and egg when I looked either!

Then the other two started complaining bitterly to me, and kept walking from their green to the corner where I usually hang them in their little cage. So I picked off the big bunch and stripped all the leaves off and put them in the cage and hung it up.

They still had a moan, but fed from my hand. The London ladies just lay on the floor sunbathing, looking on bemused.

I decided at that point it was best to leave them too it. They seemed to make more fuss when I was there, mobbing me and moaning, than when I wasn’t.

Update

I spent a couple of hours with them again this afternoon - but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I am all typed out - and I will off out to see them again for a few more times as the Carrot Crunchers and London Ladies will be spending they first sleepover together - which has to be choreographed very carefully - they all have to be asleep when I do it! I hope it is not going to be a long cold night for me!

Off to give them a bit of wheat and sweetcorn dried mix to keep them warm tonight.

8 comments:

Wonderful writing, it made me laugh so much. Some people might say we can't know what creatures are thinking, that it's anthropomorphising or whatever. I don't believe that. I think you've got it exactly with your chickens!

I think you posted this whilst I was editing the photos into it - I hope that you saw them.

That long word is a bit too clever for me (joke). I just write as I feel and to make it interesting. But if you spend as much time as I do with chickens you can honestly see their different personalities and can almost guess what they are thinking.

Wonderful creatures.

Thank you for looking and leaving such a nice comment. Much appreciated.

What lovely piccies Kooringa - the London Lasses look so lovely and cuddly and seem to be getting on with the carrot crunchers better now. Rosie is so chuffed with 'her' adopted bantam. I am glad to see that they are having such good care taken of them

When we were on holiday in Norfolk years ago,a 'local' man told us he was evacuated there during the war and quickly adopted the Norfolk accent to fit in.It wont be long before the 'little london avacuees' have 'Narferk'accents,then the big girls wont mind them so much.